Mr. Yackel-Juleen employs a powerful and effective combination of Law and Promise in his sermon “The Tower of Babel and the Holy Spirit”. He contends that God has punished the people of Babel and has shown them mercy simultaneously in Genesis 11:1-9. While they attempt to build a great shrine to display their own greatness, God confuses their language in order to break up the community they had established without God. Through this act of punishment, Yackel-Juleen states that God shows mercy by bringing the people of Babel back into community with God. Thus, Yackel-Juleen directly illustrates how both Law and Promise are present in this Old Testament text.
Upon concluding his exegesis of the Old Testament text, Yackel-Juleen makes a present day application of the text’s lesson. He is able to apply it to secular society as a whole, and more specifically, to the dissention within the ELCA. He speaks of how our language has also been confused so that we do not understand one another in our greater church community. Yackel-Juleen provides a sign of hope for our situations found in the New Testament text.
In the New Testament lesson of Acts 2:1-13, Yackel-Juleen shows us that even though our language may be confused, we are all given a new identity as disciples of Christ. Rather than turn inward and grieve the misunderstandings we have with one another, he believes we should turn outward, embrace our differences, and go where the Holy Spirit leads us.
Mr. Yackel-Juleen’s sermon succeeds in three ways: it effectively demonstrates the Law and Promise of God in the Tower of Babel narrative, it makes a practical application of the Biblical texts to God’s people of today, and it reveals the power of the Holy Spirit to us as disciples of Christ. Such relevant and effective Biblical preaching as that of Yackel-Juleen is certainly admirable.

Mr. Yackel-Juleen employs a powerful and effective combination of Law and Promise in his sermon “The Tower of Babel and the Holy Spirit”. He contends that God has punished the people of Babel and has shown them mercy simultaneously in Genesis 11:1-9. While they attempt to build a great shrine to display their own greatness, God confuses their language in order to break up the community they had established without God. Through this act of punishment, Yackel-Juleen states that God shows mercy by bringing the people of Babel back into community with God. Thus, Yackel-Juleen directly illustrates how both Law and Promise are present in this Old Testament text.
Upon concluding his exegesis of the Old Testament text, Yackel-Juleen makes a present day application of the text’s lesson. He is able to apply it to secular society as a whole, and more specifically, to the dissention within the ELCA. He speaks of how our language has also been confused so that we do not understand one another in our greater church community. Yackel-Juleen provides a sign of hope for our situations found in the New Testament text.
In the New Testament lesson of Acts 2:1-13, Yackel-Juleen shows us that even though our language may be confused, we are all given a new identity as disciples of Christ. Rather than turn inward and grieve the misunderstandings we have with one another, he believes we should turn outward, embrace our differences, and go where the Holy Spirit leads us.
Mr. Yackel-Juleen’s sermon succeeds in three ways: it effectively demonstrates the Law and Promise of God in the Tower of Babel narrative, it makes a practical application of the Biblical texts to God’s people of today, and it reveals the power of the Holy Spirit to us as disciples of Christ. Such relevant and effective Biblical preaching as that of Yackel-Juleen is certainly admirable.